Oxytocin – Oxytocin Blog – Oxytocin Research and News

Autism has again been linked to a malfunctioning ability of the bodies oxytocin receptors.  A team at Duke University Medical Center has established a relationship between the oxytocin receptor gene and autism.  What is novel about this research finding appears to be that the relationship does not concern the DNA sequence itself within the gene, but the gene ‘signature’ that determines whether the gene is switched on or off.

These results provide a possible explanation of why social isolation forms part of the autism spectrum — because an autistic individual’s ability to respond to oxytocin may be limited. Oxytocin has been tied to levels of trust and ability to read social cues.

A research group in Canada has found that infant mice raised apart from their fathers grew up with less oxytocin in their brain’s and a consequent impaired ability be social and feel positive in the company of other mice.  The study follows another which showed that fathers experience a huge surge of oxytocin after a child is born, leading some to believe that fathers play a crucial role in the development of their children.